vCloud Air Command Line Interface
18 Dec 2014As a cloud provider, VMware vCloud Air has a rich set of functionality available to users through the Portal and the API. With the release of the vCloud Air Command Line Interface (vca-cli), users have now another method to access the service and leverage the benefits of scripting for automation and documentation purposes.
The vca-cli is a cross-platform tool that exposes the rich vCloud Air API with a command line interface. The following entry is an introduction on how to install and use vca-cli.
vca-cli requires Python and pip. Make sure these two components are properly installed on your system. After that, simply install vca-cli with:
$ pip install vca-cli
You will also need a vCloud Air account, of course. Log in to vCloud Air with your credentials:
$ vca login myname@mycomp.com
Password: ********
Login successful with profile 'default'
Alternatively:
$ vca login myname@mycomp.com --password my_secret_password
Login successful with profile 'default'
Upon successful login, list the services and virtual datacenters that you have access to:
$ vca services
Available services for 'default' profile:
| ID | Type | Region |
|-----------------+------------------------+-----------------|
| 85-719 | compute:dedicatedcloud | US - Nevada |
| 20-162 | compute:vpc | US - Nevada |
| M536557417-4609 | compute:dr2c | US - California |
| M869414061-4607 | compute:dr2c | US - Nevada |
| M409710659-4610 | compute:dr2c | US - Texas |
| M371661272-4608 | compute:dr2c | US - Virginia |
$ vca datacenters --service 85-719
Available datacenters in service '85-719' for 'default' profile:
| Virtual Data Center | Status | Service ID | Service Type | Region |
|-----------------------+----------+--------------+------------------------+-------------|
| Marketing | Active | 85-719 | compute:dedicatedcloud | US - Nevada |
| RnD | Active | 85-719 | compute:dedicatedcloud | US - Nevada |
| Production | Active | 85-719 | compute:dedicatedcloud | US - Nevada |
| DevOps | Active | 85-719 | compute:dedicatedcloud | US - Nevada |
| AppServices | Active | 85-719 | compute:dedicatedcloud | US - Nevada |
Once you have identified your datacenter, list the gateway. Usually the gateway has the same name as the datacenter.
$ vca gateways --service 85-719 --datacenter AppServices
Available gateways in datacenter 'AppServices' in service '85-719' for 'default' profile:
| Datacenter | Gateway |
|--------------+-------------|
| AppServices | AppServices |
For convenience you can configure the default values for service, datacenter and gateway. These values are stored in the default profile:
$ vca profiles --service 85-719 --datacenter AppServices --gateway AppServices set
Profile-default
host=https://vchs.vmware.com
user=myname@mycomp.com
service=85-719
gateway=AppServices
datacenter=AppServices
token=d188143a5d4642745d9c46c696...
At any given time, you can check the status of the vca-cli and the session with the service:
$ vca status
profile: default
host: https://vchs.vmware.com
user: myname@mycomp.com
service: 85-719
datacenter: AppServices
gateway: AppServices
session: active
vca-cli can list the vApps, VMs and templates in the datacenter:
$ vca vapps --vms
list of vApps
| Service | Datacenter | vApp | VMs | Status | Owner | Date Created |
|-----------+--------------+--------+---------+------------+------------------+---------------------|
| 85-719 | AppServices | ub | ['ub'] | Powered on | myname@mycomp.com | 12/11/2014 05:41:17 |
| 85-719 | AppServices | cts | ['cts'] | Powered on | myname@mycomp.com | 12/11/2014 02:58:13 |
$ vca templates
list of templates
| Catalog | Template | Status | Owner | # VMs | # CPU | Memory(GB) | Storage(GB) | Storage Profile |
|----------------+------------------------------------------+----------+-------------------+---------+---------+--------------+---------------+-------------------|
| blueprints | cts_6_4_64bit | RESOLVED | myname@mycomp.com | 1 | 1 | 2 | 20 | SSD-Accelerated |
| Public Catalog | W2K8-STD-R2-64BIT-SQL2K8-STD-R2-SP2 | RESOLVED | catalog_admin | 1 | 1 | 4 | 41 | SSD-Accelerated |
| Public Catalog | W2K12-STD-64BIT-SQL2K12-STD-SP1 | RESOLVED | catalog_admin | 1 | 1 | 4 | 41 | SSD-Accelerated |
| Public Catalog | CentOS64-32Bit | RESOLVED | system | 1 | 1 | 1 | 20 | SSD-Accelerated |
| Public Catalog | W2K12-STD-64BIT-SQL2K12-WEB-SP1 | RESOLVED | catalog_admin | 1 | 1 | 4 | 41 | SSD-Accelerated |
| Public Catalog | W2K12-STD-R2-64BIT | RESOLVED | system | 1 | 1 | 4 | 41 | SSD-Accelerated |
| Public Catalog | W2K12-STD-R2-SQL2K14-WEB | RESOLVED | system | 1 | 1 | 4 | 41 | SSD-Accelerated |
| Public Catalog | CentOS64-64Bit | RESOLVED | system | 1 | 1 | 1 | 20 | SSD-Accelerated |
| Public Catalog | W2K8-STD-R2-64BIT-SQL2K8-WEB-R2-SP2 | RESOLVED | catalog_admin | 1 | 1 | 4 | 41 | SSD-Accelerated |
| Public Catalog | Ubuntu Server 12.04 LTS (i386 20140927) | RESOLVED | system | 1 | 1 | 1 | 10 | SSD-Accelerated |
| Public Catalog | Ubuntu Server 12.04 LTS (amd64 20140927) | RESOLVED | system | 1 | 1 | 1 | 10 | SSD-Accelerated |
| Public Catalog | CentOS63-64Bit | RESOLVED | system | 1 | 1 | 1 | 20 | SSD-Accelerated |
| Public Catalog | W2K8-STD-R2-64BIT | RESOLVED | system | 1 | 1 | 2 | 41 | SSD-Accelerated |
| blueprints | ubuntu_1204_64bit | RESOLVED | myname@mycomp.com | 1 | 2 | 4 | 67 | SSD-Accelerated |
| Public Catalog | W2K12-STD-64BIT | RESOLVED | catalog_admin | 1 | 1 | 4 | 41 | SSD-Accelerated |
| Public Catalog | CentOS63-32Bit | RESOLVED | system | 1 | 1 | 1 | 20 | SSD-Accelerated |
| Public Catalog | W2K12-STD-R2-SQL2K14-STD | RESOLVED | system | 1 | 1 | 4 | 41 | SSD-Accelerated |
One of the most useful features is the ability to work with the datacenter edge gateway. The nat subcommand lists the NAT rules currently defined in the edge gateway:
$ vca nat
list of nat rules
| Rule ID | Enabled | Type | Original IP | Original Port | Translated IP | Translated Port | Protocol | Applied On |
|-----------+-----------+--------+------------------+-----------------+-----------------+-------------------+------------+--------------|
| 65538 | True | SNAT | 192.168.109.0/24 | any | 192.240.158.81 | any | any | d0p1-ext |
| 65537 | True | DNAT | 192.240.158.81 | 22 | 192.168.109.2 | 22 | tcp | d0p1-ext |
| 65540 | True | DNAT | 192.240.158.81 | 8080 | 192.168.109.4 | 8080 | tcp | d0p1-ext |
It is possible to add a NAT rule (DNAT or SNAT):
$ vca nat add DNAT 192.240.158.81 80 192.168.109.2 80 tcp
adding nat rule
+-------------+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| @startTime | 2014-12-18T02:58:24.777Z |
+-------------+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| @status | running |
+-------------+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| @href | https://p1v21-vcd.vchs.vmware.com/api/task/1e449f40-c25f-4037-8475-ff783dca5eef |
+-------------+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| task:cancel | https://p1v21-vcd.vchs.vmware.com/api/task/1e449f40-c25f-4037-8475-ff783dca5eef/action/cancel |
+-------------+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Rule ID | Enabled | Type | Original IP | Original Port | Translated IP | Translated Port | Protocol | Applied On |
|-----------+-----------+--------+------------------+-----------------+-----------------+-------------------+------------+--------------|
| 65538 | True | SNAT | 192.168.109.0/24 | any | 192.240.158.81 | any | any | d0p1-ext |
| 65537 | True | DNAT | 192.240.158.81 | 22 | 192.168.109.2 | 22 | tcp | d0p1-ext |
| 65540 | True | DNAT | 192.240.158.81 | 8080 | 192.168.109.4 | 8080 | tcp | d0p1-ext |
| 65541 | True | DNAT | 192.240.158.81 | 23 | 192.168.109.2 | 22 | tcp | d0p1-ext |
| 65542 | True | DNAT | 192.240.158.81 | 80 | 192.168.109.2 | 80 | tcp | d0p1-ext |
… and to delete NAT rules:
$ vca nat del DNAT 192.240.158.81 80 192.168.109.2 80 tcp
deleting nat rule
+-------------+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| @startTime | 2014-12-18T02:56:55.677Z |
+-------------+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| @status | running |
+-------------+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| @href | https://p1v21-vcd.vchs.vmware.com/api/task/fe423f3b-3d8d-4fff-ba0a-491f052723db |
+-------------+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| task:cancel | https://p1v21-vcd.vchs.vmware.com/api/task/fe423f3b-3d8d-4fff-ba0a-491f052723db/action/cancel |
+-------------+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Rule ID | Enabled | Type | Original IP | Original Port | Translated IP | Translated Port | Protocol | Applied On |
|-----------+-----------+--------+------------------+-----------------+-----------------+-------------------+------------+--------------|
| 65538 | True | SNAT | 192.168.109.0/24 | any | 192.240.158.81 | any | any | d0p1-ext |
| 65537 | True | DNAT | 192.240.158.81 | 22 | 192.168.109.2 | 22 | tcp | d0p1-ext |
| 65540 | True | DNAT | 192.240.158.81 | 8080 | 192.168.109.4 | 8080 | tcp | d0p1-ext |
| 65541 | True | DNAT | 192.240.158.81 | 23 | 192.168.109.2 | 22 | tcp | d0p1-ext |
The vca-cli project has been released by the VMware vCloud Air team under the Open Source Apache2 license. It is hosted on the VMware public GitHub repository. We hope you’ll find it userful and we welcome feedback and contributions. On future posts, I will cover other features of vca-cli.